When laying a foundation of a tower construction such as a wind turbine tower, a reinforced concrete element is often cast and subsequently, the turbine tower is positioned on the concrete element and fixed thereto. Often, the foundation includes an embedment section which is typically made of steel and has a circular shape corresponding to the shape of the tower. The embedment section includes a flange or similar interface for fixing the tower to the foundation.
When laying the foundation, the embedment section is firstly arranged such that the interface, and thus the tower, becomes accurately positioned. Subsequently, the reinforced concrete element is cast inside and about the embedment section whereby the embedment section becomes solidly fixed in a large block of concrete. Finally, the tower is anchored to the embedment section, typically by use of substantially vertical anchor rods or bolts through matching holes in adjacent flanges of the embedment section and the lowest tower section.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,417 discloses an example of a tower construction.
Due to the heavy weight of the tower construction, the connection between the embedment section and the concrete section is exposed to very large forces and cracks in the interface between these two sections are typically unavoidable. It is, however, of utmost importance that the embedment section continuously transfers the forces from the tower to the concrete section throughout the lifetime of the wind turbine.